


When the Air Conditioning Goes Out, Goldilocks Goes to Steve's

by minou_demimonde



Series: Goldilocks and the Lack of Refrigeration [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-13
Updated: 2012-08-13
Packaged: 2017-11-12 02:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/485684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minou_demimonde/pseuds/minou_demimonde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Well damn. He feels like Goldilocks where this bed was too hard, and that one too soft, and Steve’s is just right.</p><p>Well, he is blond.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Air Conditioning Goes Out, Goldilocks Goes to Steve's

**Author's Note:**

> Unmitigated fluff. You have been warned! Danny's side of Lack of Refrigerative Environment

Danny Williams is used to heat. And humidity. In New Jersey, they have both. For a few months of the year. The rest of the year is less full of the heat, though the humidity never does go away. But there are whole months in Jersey where the temperature is of a more normal dimension, and air conditioning is a nicety. A luxury, if you will. In Jersey, they call those months either spring or fall. Imagine that. Seasons.  
  
But this ain’t Jersey. This is Hawai’i, and air conditioning is a necessity unless you are the type who desires to live in the ocean 4/5 of the year.  
  
Danny isn’t a mer-man. Nor is he a SuperSEAL™. He swims. He has definitively proven that to everyone’s satisfaction. But he does not believe that having genetically-engineered gills would be a good idea.  
  
Hence, Danny Williams needs his air conditioning like a fish needs gills of the non-genetically-engineered type.  
  
And his just broke. (Air conditioning, not gills.)  
  
With a rather obscene noise, no less, and smoke, and sparks, which necessitated both the shutting down of the power in his apartment, and the use of a fire-subduing device. In this case, the only thing he can come up with happens to be one of his two functional pans. Guess he’s not going to be frying anything at any point in the near future.  
  
But at least the flames are extinguished, something he verifies by using his other pan to transport large amounts of water to the now-dead and stinking air conditioning unit.  
  
The stench is, to put it mildly, vomit-inducing. And it’s all over him. And all his clothes. And all his furniture.  
  
He’s going to have to call in the professionals to clean his apartment, and most of his clothing is going out the door. Hopefully they can rescue the couch. He likes that couch. But the mattress is most likely a gonner, and his nice, fluffy pillows, that he spent so much money on just yesterday, are just plain dead.  
  
Danny is, in a word, toast.  
  
He briefly considers going to Wal-Mart and getting some kind of clothing, and then hitting the cheapest motel in the area, but he just doesn’t have it in him. He’s tired. It’s 3:00 AM. He hasn’t had any sleep, and he’s exhausted. This day, the one that hasn’t ended yet for him, started at 2:00 AM  yesterday . He’s been up 25 hours now, and he would really, really like to get some sleep.  
  
He sits in his stinky, electrical-burn smelling apartment, and thinks for a moment. Then he does the only thing that a man in his position can do: he gets his shampoo and conditioner, and goes to Steve’s.  
  
Steve has great air conditioning. He just replaced the unit last fall. It works like a dream. His house is practically  cold  sometimes. It’s delicious. It’s the only thing that sustains him while he calls a cab--because there is no way in hell he’s going to get in  his  car smelling the way he does--and is driven to Steve’s house.  
  
Danny loves Steve’s house. Every single bit of it.  
  
He loves the squeaky stairs. He loves the out-dated bathrooms. He loves the fact that there’s no table in the kitchen and that the kitchen is incredibly tiny. He loves the whole thing, every single board of it.  
  
Of course, if Steve weren’t there, he’d have some really bad things to say about it. But since it’s Steve’s house, he adores it.  
  
There is a slight possibility that Steve plays a rather large part in Danny’s emotions. As in, he and Grace are responsible for a huge amount of them. Even Rachel is way down the line now that Steve is here. And there are times that Danny wonders exactly how that one happened. But there are things you have to accept about yourself, he’s learned. And apparently being in love with your best friend is one of them.  
  
Danny’s been attracted to guys before, but in a sort of aesthetic, “wow he’s built,” sort of way. He’s certainly never felt any kind of emotional attachment to them. At least not in the romance department. But Danny is pretty sure that Steve is it for him. Steve is what Rachel should have been.  
  
Oh well. It’s for the best that he didn’t meet Steve first. After all, how on earth would they have gotten Gracie?   
  
But now that he’s found Steve, he isn’t letting go. Mind you, he plans on taking things a bit slow, Steve being Steve after all. And as he lets himself into Steve’s house, he is firmly of the mind that he’s going to hit the guest shower, clean up, and then climb into the guest bed in Mary’s room. The one that Grace uses when she stays over.  
  
But for some reason he finds himself climbing the stairs and  _not_ turning down the hall to the guest bedrooms or the guest bath. His feet take him into Steve’s room. The fact that Steve hasn’t greeted him with a gun in hand is kind of worrying, but Danny doesn’t let himself get too worried about it. He’s fairly sure that Steve will wake up when he goes across that creaky floor of his.  
  
He doesn’t. So Danny reaches out and touches him, just to be sure. He’s fine. Breathing fine. Skin isn’t hot. Heart beating (yes, he checks, just to be safe).  
  
Huh. Didn’t expect that one. But if Steve’s comfortable enough to have Danny in his house without waking up, Danny is not going to argue. And even if he felt so inclined, there’s a good possibility he’s just plain not up to it.  
  
The shower is fabulous. He never felt anything as good as this shower. He dumps his clothes in a heap on the floor and throws himself headlong into the cold shower. Doesn’t even turn on the hot water. It feels so good. There is a possibility he’s never felt anything that felt this good before.  
  
The sweat and stink and frustration run off of him with the suds. He washes his hair three times. It feels like heaven must. He soaps his body twice, taking special care with every single inch of skin.  
  
When he’s clean, he stands there in the cold water for a while. He’s definitely taken more than Steve’s prescription 3-minute shower. But since there was no hot water involved, he suspects that Steve wouldn’t mind too much.  
  
Finally, shaking with exhaustion, he climbs out of the tub and grabs one of Steve’s fluffy clean towels out of the cupboard and dries himself off. He shamelessly grabs the new toothbrush that Steve most likely purchase for himself, so that right on the three month mark he can replace his old one. It feels wonderful to clean the electric smoke taste out of his mouth too.  
  
But then he faces a real conundrum. What is he going to wear?  
  
He honestly has no clothing.   
  
But, he knows where Steve’s t-shirts and boxers are, so he heads into Steve’s room, verifies once again that Steve is alive, because he really  should  have woken up by now. It’s not like Danny’s trying to be all that quiet. He’s too damn  tired  to be quiet.  
  
But yeah, Steve’s alive. He even kind of murmers, “Danno,” in his sleep. It gives Danny a rush of warmth that makes him kind of smile for a half a second there, before his “I am a man, I do not goosh out,” gene takes hold of him again.  
  
He grabs a pair of boxers and a t-shirt from Steve’s dresser, and tugs them on. By now, he’s starting to really feel the cold water and the air conditioning, and instead of being too hot, or just right, he’s too damn cold. He’s starting to shiver.   
  
So he dresses quickly, and heads into Mary’s old room, and slips under the covers.  
  
The bed is cold. Freezing, really. And Danny isn’t sure that he has the necessary body heat to warm it up.  
  
And the bed in the other room is going to be just as cold, and we won’t even get into the couch.  
  
Well damn. He feels like Goldilocks where this bed was too hard, and that one too soft, and Steve’s is just right.  
  
Well, he  is  blond.   
  
And if, after tonight, he will never, ever admit to himself that he just had that thought, well then that will probably be for the best.  
  
So he gives up, climbs out of the narrow, cold bed, and heads back into Steve’s room.  
  
He wonders if Steve will wake up when he gets in with him. Turns out that the answer is...nope.  
  
But it’s still cold on the other side of the bed from Steve, and Danny is getting pretty upset with this whole cold and miserable thing. It’s now 4:30 AM and he’s been up for a very, very long time, and he wants to sleep. And there is no way in fucking hell he’s going to sleep if he’s this miserable.  
  
So, in his utter and complete exhaustion and grump, he rolls over and drapes himself over Steve. Chest mostly on Steve’s chest. Face tucked securely into Steve’s neck. One leg draped over Steve’s, and the other up close. He’s got a good hold on Steve.  
  
Who immediately wraps his arms around him and tugs him even closer. And doesn’t that feel nice. He can feel Steve’s warmth enfolding him. For the first time in 27 hours, he’s comfortable. And not too hot. Not too cold. Just right.  
  
And hey, Steve’s holding him, which is a total bonus. But it  does  bring questions to mind, like does Steve do this with just any guy who climbs into his bed, or is it just Danny? That’s a question that must be asked.  
  
So he grumbles into Steve’s neck a  bit. “Hey, Steve, you awake?”  
  
“Mmph.”  
  
“Ok, I’ll take that as a yes. Or something. Question here. Who do you think I am, exactly?”  
  
“Danno, gosleep. Mtired.”  
  
Well. That pretty much takes care of that. But it  does  make him curious.  
  
“Have you been wanting to cuddle with me long, Steve?”  
  
“Fervr. Seepnw.”  
  
Ok, he suspects that there is a possible “forever” in there, and a command to sleep now. Well, he’s good with that. Later, after he’s had a good long sleep, they’ll have to discuss this whole “forever” thing, because that is just  not  going away.  
  
The next few hours are heaven. He sleeps better than he has in any time since his marriage began to crash. Maybe even better. This is wonderful. Warm arms holding him so close. His nose tucked up against Steve’s neck where he can smell him. And Steve smells nice. Steve smells like home.  
  
His feet are tucked safely under Steve’s calves, and his arms are holding Steve just as close as Steve is holding him.  
  
The only hitch comes when Steve wakes up.  
  
Danny doesn’t notice that Steve’s awake until he feels Steve go tense beneath him. And even then it doesn’t really sink in. He’s so damn tired. He just wants to sleep. And after he sleeps, then he and Steve can discuss so many things.  
  
He clings to sleep for as long as he can, but then Steve licks him.  
  
Now, Danny might not be opposed to a little mutual licking at some point in the near future, but this is not it. So he grumps and nuzzles closer into Steve’s neck.  
  
“Stop licking me. I’m trying to sleep here.”  
  
Steve tenses up even more, and then moves to release Danny, which is  so  not going to happen. He let Danny in, agreed to this mutual cuddling, even if he wasn’t completely awake for it. (Hell, even if he wasn’t awake at all.) Danny is  not  going to lose his comfy spot just because Steve is having issues. So he pushes back, and makes Steve get into place again.  
  
He’s just about drifting off again when Steve has to ruin it. “So, do you want to tell me what you’re doing here?”  
  
“Steven, I’m sleeping. I thought I mentioned that before. I would like to continue sleeping if you’d just shut up and let me.”  
  
“It’s just that I wasn’t aware that we had a sleepover planned.”  
  
If his eyes were open, he’d roll them.  “My air conditioning went out last night. It’s hot. You have good air conditioning. I came over.”  
  
“You don’t smell like you were miserably hot. In fact, you smell like you were freshly showered. And the couch is downstairs. Mary’s room is empty. My old room is empty. There are beds in both of them. Yet here you are.”  
  
“Are you complaining?”  
  
“No. Just wondering.”  
  
Well, if he’s not complaining then why did he bring it up?  Really ! Danny’s trying to sleep here.  
  
“I came over, took a shower, and here I am. If you’re not complaining, then shut up and let me sleep. I’m tired. And I’m truly comfortable for the first time in over three years. So shut up. Lay back. And let. Me. Sleep.”  
  
And who knew? McGarrett can actually take orders from somebody besides the U. S. Navy.  Finally , he lays back down, settles back into the sweet spot where Danny was so very comfortable before, and shuts up.  
  
Danny’s fairly sure that there will have to be further explanations regarding this incident, but right now, sleep beckons. And later, well perhaps they’ll explore what it’s like to be in this position without sleeping.  
  
Could be interesting.  
  
But at this moment, Danny is finally,  finally , getting back to sleep. And heh, what do you know. So is Steve.


End file.
